How Long Does It Take to Break Into Medical Sales?
Breaking into medical sales can take 8 to 12+ months, or as little as 8 to 12 weeks with the right strategy. Here's what affects your timeline and how to shorten it.
Anthony Giglia
· 3 min read
The answer varies widely.
Historically, breaking into medical sales has been a very challenging process. People who have been in the industry for a while will tell you that you can’t break in right out of college, or that you need two years of B2B sales experience first. That information is outdated. It’s simply not true.
That being said, everyone has different skills, experiences, and things they bring to the table. The process can take eight to over 12 months. People give up or transition into a different role, whether that’s B2B sales or something else, because they feel defeated.
With the right program and the right guidance in your corner, that timeline can be much shorter. For example, with my program, you can break in within 8 to 12 weeks. Your results depend on the effort you put into the process.
What affects your timeline?
A few factors determine where you fall in that range: your experience, how you position that experience on your resume, and, most importantly, how you apply and network.
If you’re applying to 200 roles and doing no networking, that’s not the way to go. I tell my clients I would rather have them apply to three roles, find the appropriate decision maker, get in front of that person, and make themselves known.
If you’re a new graduate, you need to start interviewing three to six months before graduation. Many people think they have to wait until they’re about to graduate, but that’s not the case. There is a way to interview earlier, and that’s something I offer in my program.
People with B2B sales experience will likely get more initial interviews. However, the process can still be extremely difficult. I had one client who had been at Cintas and made it to multiple final rounds before we started working together. Getting the interview and getting the offer are two different things. Even with the right experience, it can be very challenging.
What slows people down?
Typically, it’s a poor resume and the way people apply and network.
Most people go on LinkedIn. They’ve figured out that networking is important, so a hiring manager who has a LinkedIn profile gets blown up with messages from a pool of 300 candidates trying to get ahead. There’s a better way to go about it and stand out.
In my program, you get access to my database. You can directly reach the hiring managers responsible for these decisions and the reps on their teams.
Lastly, if you’re getting interviews but not getting offers, you’re not providing enough value during the interview process.
How can you shorten the timeline?
You can certainly make up for a lot through extreme levels of effort. But effort applied in the wrong areas can still leave you unprepared for what the hiring manager actually cares about. That’s why it helps to have a coach in your corner who has helped people in similar positions land roles with some of the world’s largest medical device companies.
I give you medical sales experience virtually. I teach you anatomy and pathology, and help make you the most compelling candidate on paper. You can add that experience to your resume. I reconstruct your resume to make sure it’s optimized to get interviews, and you get access to my database.
Then we navigate the interview process with a different level of tenacity so that you become the exceptional individual who gets hired.
